Well, what do you know? Paramount's finally delivered the goods when it comes
to Star Trek on DVD. The Star
Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition is, at long last, a
2-disc special edition that Trek fans can
really sink their teeth into. And I definitely fall in the category of a Trek
fan. I must confess that I've strayed away from Star
Trek in recent years, the recent spinoff series just not holding my
interest (although I'm really enjoying the new show). But I spent most of the
1970s following the syndicated TV adventures of Kirk, Spock and the crew of the
Starship Enterprise. Long before Star Wars
took me to a place long ago and far away, Star Trek
fired my young imagination like nothing else could. There were 79 episodes and I
knew every one. So it's with a fond memories that I'm now able to go back and
revisit this first big-screen adventure - the film that, quite literally, made
the Star Trek franchise possible.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture takes place
two years after the end of the Enterprise's original five-year mission to boldly
go where no man had gone before. Captain Kirk's now an Admiral and is the head
of Starfleet Operations. Spock's left Starfleet and is on sabbatical on his home
planet of Vulcan, attempting to purge all those irritating human emotions from
his mind. McCoy's also left the service, and is now the good country doctor he
always wanted to be. And the Enterprise herself has just undergone an extensive
redesign and refitting under the care of everyone's favorite Chief Engineer, Mr.
Scott. But all is not well in the Federation.

On the far edges of the Neutral Zone, a strange and unbelievably powerful
energy cloud has appeared and easily turned aside an attack by the ever-jumpy
Klingons. Now it's headed towards Earth, intentions unknown, and the untested
Enterprise is the only ship that can intercept it in time. But her new Captain,
Will Decker, is untried and the ship's new warp engines have never even been
tested. Naturally, Admiral Kirk convinces Starfleet to let him take the helm,
but Kirk's unfamiliar with the ship's new design and he hasn't been in space
since he surrendered the big chair. Can the Old Gray Mare and her crew pull it
together in time to save the planet?

Well... if you've seen the many movies that followed Star
Trek: The Motion Picture, you'll know the answer to that question.
Fortunately, that doesn't make the experience of revisiting this movie any less
enjoyable. Sure, the lengthy arrival at the Enterprise and the seemingly-endless
flight into the Intruder seem hokey in retrospect, but you have to put yourself
in the position of someone who was seeing this film for the first time back when
it was first released. This was the first glimpse we'd gotten of our favorite
Starship in nearly a decade, and there she was, up on the big screen looking
sleek, fast and decidedly more badass than ever before. This stuff was
breathtaking to fans back in 1979. And finally, all our old friends were back on
the Bridge where they belonged.

For this new DVD special edition, director Robert Wise has finally been given
the chance to go back and do what he'd always wanted to do with this film -
finish it. Star Trek's theatrical release
date was set in stone back in 1979, and with all the new special effects, the
production team had to rush to complete the film. Much of the sound design and
even some scenes and special effects were left unfinished and unused. So with
the help of his production team and the effects gurus at Foundation Imaging,
many scenes and shots have been enhanced and polished, and the film's sound mix
has been given a major overhaul. Finally, when Spock holds up his hand to block
out the sun on the planet Vulcan, you actually see the sun in the next shot
(along with cool statues and a rocky mountain range to boot). Kirk's arrival at
Starfleet Command now features dazzling new views of the future San Francisco
and the landing bay (look real close and you might even seen an old, TV-style
shuttlecraft taking flight in the background). And finally, we get to see what
V'Ger was supposed to look like. I was pleased to see that the new shots fit (by
and large) very well with the original look of the film. Wise has also done a
bit of editing on the film, tightening up the action and adding a few scenes
that didn't make the theatrical cut (but don't worry... nearly everything that
was cut is still available on Disc Two - more on that in a minute). Despite all
the changes, this still feels very much like the same movie I remember from
1979. There's even the film's restored, 2-minute Overture, featuring Goldsmith's
fantastic theme music. I think most fans will really appreciate the new cut of
the film.

So how does it look on DVD? Well... Disc One presents the film in anamorphic
widescreen video. And the video may be the only weakness of this 2-disc set.
Don't get me wrong - the film overall looks fine and is entirely watchable. I
dare say that, on DVD, it looks better than it ever has. But I was a bit
surprised when I popped the disc into my player and started up the Klingon
battle that opens the film. Every little nick on the emulsion and bit of dust on
the film that I remember... is still there. I would have thought that the VERY
first thing those involved in the creation of this new cut would do, would be to
go through and digitally erase all this junk. It's distracting all throughout
the film, and it should have been removed. The film is also a bit soft at times
which, to be fair, is a problem it's always had. There's a ton of grain visible
in all those smoky shots of V'Ger and the red-lit action scenes on the Bridge.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture pretty much
looks how it looks, and that can't be helped. But the color on this disc is
excellent and the contrast is also generally good. Like I said, the film looks
better than ever. If only they'd cleaned it up a bit.

Audio-wise, this disc is refreshing. The film's new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is
very true to the spirit of the original mix, yet it features lots of new little
details in the surrounds and new sound effects that wonderfully fill out the
soundfield. Most of these effects were actually created for the original film,
but time constraints meant that they were never used. So Paramount pulled the
tapes out of the vault and the result is that we're hearing this film for the
first time as it was always meant to sound. Jerry Goldsmith's score, which is
one of my favorite pieces of film music, has never sounded better, with wide and
encompassing placement in the mix. Dialogue is clear and clean at all times.
There's also lots of great panning and surround use, and the low frequency is
excellent. Trust me - the thunderous roar of the Klingon's torpedoes will shake
you out of your seats. And here's a nice touch for you audiophiles - the disc
defaults to the 5.1 track. Note that a Dolby Digital 2.0 track is also
available.

In terms of extras on Disc One, you get a good audio commentary by Wise, along
with Goldsmith, special effects gurus Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra and
actor Stephen Collins. It feels a bit cobbled together, and you can tell that
Wise's parts have been scripted. But that's understandable given his age, and
the quality of the information you'll glean from the track is first rate. It's
well worth a listen. I thought I knew everything there was to know about this
flick, and I actually learned a thing or two. There's also a great feature that
I hope Paramount continues on future Trek
special editions. Michael Okuda, co-author of The
Star Trek Encyclopedia and a technical consultant to the franchise,
has written an excellent text commentary that you can choose to view (via
subtitles) while watching the film. You'll have to read fast sometimes, but he's
a veritable fountain of interesting information. He draws parallels in the film
to other aspects of Star Trek history,
makes connections that fans will appreciate and even tells you things like what
impulse and warp drives are and how they work in the Trek
universe. Ever wanted to know how fast Warp 5 is? Who designed the new
Enterprise? Why the name of Spock's Vulcan shuttle is important to Trek
history? It's all here. I enjoyed the text commentary as much, if not more, than
the audio commentary. This should be standard on all Trek
DVDs from here on out. It's very cool.

Disc Two gets even better if you're a Trek
fan. First of all, there are three excellent new documentary featurettes that
provide a fascinating look at the evolution and production of the film. Each
features new interviews with the cast and crew, including (but not limited to)
Wise, Goldsmith, Trumbull, Dykstra, William Shatner, Walter Koenig, Majel
Barrett Roddenberry and even Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was instrumental in
shepherding the project to the big screen as a brash, young Paramount executive.
Phase II: The Lost Enterprise provides a
look at the aborted effort to bring Star Trek
back to TV in the late 1970s - a project which eventually evolved into this
first film. A Bold New Enterprise details
the production of the film itself. And Redirecting
the Future shows us the process of creating the enhanced special
effects and the new cut made for this DVD. The film's teaser and theatrical
trailers are included, both in anamorphic widescreen. Gotta love that narration
by Orson Welles! There's also a new trailer made to promote the Director's
Edition and a promo for the new Enterprise
TV series (a nice touch). Some 8 TV spots are available, again featuring trippy
Welles narration. And remember what I said about all the deleted footage being
included? Well, nearly everything that was shortened or deleted from the
theatrical cut is included here in its original version - 5 scenes in all, along
with various trims and outtakes, all in anamorphic widescreen (another great
touch). This includes the only completed footage of the unrealized "memory
wall" scene. Additionally, 11 more scenes (or fragments of scenes) that
were restored for the 1983 TV broadcast are available as well, all once again in
anamorphic widescreen (can you tell, I'm impressed? Well, I'm impressed). That
includes the scene where Kirk leaves the ship to find Spock, wearing his space
suit, where you can plainly see that the set is unfinished behind him. And
finally, there's an archive of storyboard artwork for 3 scenes: "Vulcan",
"Enterprise Departure" and "V'Ger Revealed". And that's a
damn lot of cool Trek bonus material. Just
have your friends bring the pizza and a case of Romulan Ale, and you've got a
good evening's fun for Trek geeks of all
varieties (Trekkie and Trekker, thank you very much).

There are only a few things that I would have wanted that are not on this disc.
The first is an isolated version of Goldsmith's score. The second is audio
commentary with the major Trek cast
members. But the fact that neither of these things appear here is a small
complaint (and I'll bet Paramount looked into both, but space or licensing
issues nixed a music track and the actors declined to participate). On future
Trek special editions, I'd also love to
see some kind of audio commentary or other footage with the late Gene
Roddenberry. Hopefully, somewhere deep in the Paramount archives, there are
tapes of the Great Bird of the Galaxy being interviewed about his creation over
the years, that can be edited into a documentary, or cobbled into an audio
commentary track. Wouldn't that be cool?

When all is said and done, I think fans will be quite pleased with this DVD
special edition. Quibbles (there's an obvious pun here that I'll spare you)
about the picture quality aside, this is a 2-disc set that's very easy to enjoy
and definitely delivers the goods. This release bodes very nicely for the
quality of future Trek special editions.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Cut
is a treat. Don't miss it.